


It's Just You And Me

by Dark_Angel23



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Explosions, Hurt Merlin (Merlin), M/M, Magic Revealed, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28192395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Angel23/pseuds/Dark_Angel23
Summary: On a hunt, Merlin and Arthur get lost, and badly injured. What happens?
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Kudos: 142





	It's Just You And Me

Merlin believed that his day couldn’t get any worse. So of course, it did.

The king and the knights had gone for a 3 day hunt, and of course, they had taken Merlin with them.

Arthur had seen a buck bounding through the forest and was adamant that he would catch it, no matter how much time it took. When the knights told him that it was a bad idea as it was getting dark, he simply scoffed and told them that he would go on alone. And then he also dragged Merlin with him.

It had been a good nine hours since they had left the camp behind, and they had also lost the buck. Now they were lost, hungry, and tired, with no resources.

For the past half an hour, a prickling feeling was making the hairs on the back of Merlin’s neck stand on end. The uneasiness had now driven the tiredness from his mind, and he was getting frustrated trying to figure out what made him feel this way.

“Arthur,” Merlin whispered as a horrible realisation struck him. “I think we are in Essetir.”

“What?” Arthur replied, swishing his sword to cut through the undergrowth. “Nonsense. I would know if we were.”

“But think about it,” Merlin pressed. “We are lost, with no sense of direction. I won’t be surprised. Plus, the forest isn’t this thick in Camelot.”

“The forest isn’t thick. It’s just the night.”

“Arthur, please, let’s just turn back.”

But Arthur just waved his protests away, and continued on his way.

Merlin sighed and followed him, because he knew Arthur wouldn’t listen to him and he needed to keep his idiot safe.

****

Another 2 hours later, they were still wandering around. The torch in Merlin’s hand was flickering out. He deduced that it must be nearing midnight.

“Arthur, what exactly are you hoping to find?” He asked. It was unlikely that he was still searching for the buck, but it was Arthur he was talking about.

“The camp.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to search for it in the morning?”

“So what do you want to do then?”

“I don’t know, set up a fire and retire for the night?”

“And be sitting ducks for bandits? Don’t you realise that we are in Essetir? They would undoubtedly take us to Cendred!”

“You knew?”

“What?”

“That we are in Essetir?”

“Of course I did.”

“How long?”

“Shortly after you informed me.”

Their bickering was a welcome respite from the silence that had been plaguing between them for the last few hours, but it distracted Merlin from realising that his magic danger radar was pinging like crazy.

And before either of them knew it, there was a burst of light and both of them were thrown off their feet. They passed out just as they hit the ground again.

****

“How much do you think we should ask for them? 100 gold coins?” A gruff voice that Merlin did not recognise asked.

“Are you nuts? Don’t you realise who that is? We should ask for five times as much.” Someone else replied.

“500 gold coins? If we ask for that much Cendred is just going to kill us and take them anyway!” A third voice rebuked them.

“Whatever you decide, do it quickly. I don’t think they are going to survive for much longer. If they die, the only thing we will be getting is killed by Uther Pendragon.” A rough fourth voice said.

Just as these words registered in Merlin’s mind, pain shot through his body. It was difficult to figure out where it came from, it was everywhere. He gasped involuntarily.

Thankfully the bandits were arguing too loudly to hear him, but a sharp shushing noise to his right told him someone else did.

“What are you doing?! Keep it down,” Arthur hissed.

“Are you okay?” Merlin asked, trying to force down the whimper that was almost out of him.

“Yes. But you are clearly not.”

“I noticed.”

“And how exactly are you dealing?”

“I’m used to it.”

Silence. Just for a few moments.

“What do you think we should do?” Arthur asked.

Merlin figured out that Arthur must have gotten hit on the head, but it wasn’t possible he was asking for  _ his _ help. He’d probably mistaken him for someone else.

“Right now? Nothing. What exactly happened?”

“From what I heard, there was some kind of explosive hidden in the woods near which we were passing. It sensed something moving around and burst. We were caught in the explosion. Probably magic,” There was a pause for a few seconds, and then he added, “It has been 3 days since that, by the way.”

3 days?! “Oh my God, it will be chaos in Camelot.”

“I am preferring not to think about that.” 

There was silence between them for some time, during which their captors finished their argument and moved outside to make some food. Merlin let out the squeak of pain that he was forcing himself to hold back.

Beside him, he felt Arthur stiffen.

“Use your magic to fix yourself.” He told him.

A pause, during which Merlin wondered if he was dreaming.

Or dead and dreaming.

There was no way Arthur could know about his magic and ask him to fix himself. How did he know about it anyway?

Merlin would normally have panicked, but he was in too much pain to do so. He will probably die anyways.

“Didn’t you hear me! Fix yourself. We need to get out of here!”

A bolt of pain shot through his leg. So he was probably not dreaming.

He hissed as pain started arching across his body again, ceaselessly and more painful than before. Dear God, how much of his skin had burnt?

He squirmed in his place, his bound hands twisting and hurting him even more. Tears streamed down his face, even though he tried to hold them back.

“Merlin!” Arthur exclaimed, panic in his voice now. He was probably louder than he should have been, but he didn’t care. “What’s happening?”

“Pain….” Merlin whimpered. “Too much…. Can’t bear it….”

“You were fine a minute ago, what happened?!”

“I… Don’t know.”

“Can’t you use magic to fix yourself?!”

“No… Lived with - with Gaius… Never learnt any spells…To heal some- something like..this.”

Sweat was pouring out of his glands now, slipping onto the burns. The salt was irritating it even more. It was all Merlin could do from screaming out.

“We need to get out of here.” Arthur said, probably to himself. “Knife…”

Merlin saw him turn over, now lying on his stomach. Or maybe he heard him, he didn’t know. All his senses were blending together under the onslaught of pain that was plaguing his body.

He tried to hold on for some more time, but soon, he blacked out.

But only for a few minutes. When he came to, Arthur was crouching beside him, hurriedly cutting the ropes that were binding his hands and legs, while occasionally glancing at the entrance to the tent to see if their captors were coming back.

“Come on, wake up, we need to get out of here..” He whispered, turning him over to cut the ropes on his wrists.

The movement sent a new flare of pain through his back and side, and he gritted his teeth to stop a scream from coming out. He hissed instead.

The sound made Arthur look up. “Good, you’re awake.” Then he went back to cutting the rope. “Gather your energy. We need to get out here.”

“They’ll- They’ll catch us.”

“Not if we get out of here before they get back from the stream. There’s a back flap.” He sawed through the last strand, Merlin’s arms now free. It didn’t do much to reduce his pain.

“You… You aren’t hurt?” Merlin asked, a bit surprised. Merlin would have thought that he was perfectly okay, except he was wincing now and then.

Arthur was silent. Whether it was guilty or not, Merlin did not know. He was hoisted up, his whole body screaming in protest. His mind was becoming numb to the pain now.

The next few hours was a blur as Merlin moved in and out of consciousness. At some point, Arthur had stopped dragging him along, and picked him up, bridal style. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but then at last, he couldn’t keep himself awake anymore. He passed out, for one last time.

****

Merlin woke up to the feeling of water all around him. He took a deep breath in shock, and relaxed when he realised that he was lying only in a stream. The water did not reach above his arms.

He lay there for a little while, enjoying the feeling of cold water lapping on his burns. He didn’t realise Arthur was nearby until he heard cursing.

“Light up! You miserable excuse for wood!”, followed by a string of profanities. Merlin turned his head and noticed Arthur sitting a few meters away from the edge of the stream, his back to him, rubbing two pieces of flint together to light up a pile of wood.

Merlin grinned, and whispered a few words under his breath. He was feeling much better now, and his magic was finally working again.

The wood lit up, and Arthur paused. Merlin fought a laugh when he imagined how his face would look like.

Apparently finally figuring out what would have happened, Arthur whipped around, his eyes falling on a grinning Merlin. He sighed in relief. “You’re awake!”

“It seems like I am.” He replied.

Silence reigned between them for a while.

“Why weren’t you hurt as badly as me?” Merlin blurted out, asking the one question that had been bothering him since the night before.

Arthur was silent. It was obvious that he didn’t want to answer.

“Arthur!” Merlin pressed, sitting up.  _ “What happened?” _

Arthur just pursed his lips and looked away. “I didn’t believe it at first,” he whispered, so low that Merlin almost did not catch it. “I was thinking it was a hallucination, or a trick of the light, but later I realised that wasn’t the case.”

There was a small pause.

Arthur looked up and met Merlin’s eyes squarely. “You used magic. To help me.”

“What?!” Merlin hadn’t done it consciously, so maybe that’s why he didn’t remember it. Also the fact that he had been flying through the air at that time.

“One minute I was flying through the air, air burning all around me, and the next there was this shimmering purple sphere around me!” He was agitated now, pacing back and forth and gesticulating wildly. “I just realised that the air wasn't burning me anymore when I hit the ground.”

“I woke up bound in that tent, with the captors just nearby. They knew who both of us were, and were planning to sell us to Cendred. I couldn’t do anything. Then I realised that you were beside me, looking like a roasted pig. I panicked thinking that you were-” Arthur cut himself off quickly, clearing his throat. “Then I realised that I wasn’t hurt, making me wonder if what I witnessed was really real or not.”

From his silence, it was evident that he had been leaning towards the former.

“I wasn’t really sure until I asked you to heal yourself, and you replied that you couldn’t, confirming my suspicions.”

Merlin’s heart was in his throat. He had made a horrible mistake that would now get him killed.

There was silence. Both of them wanted to forget this.

“So…” Merlin asked, unsure, “What are you going to do?”

Arthur opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the sound of rustling from a nearby bush. Arthur stood up, and slowly drew his sword, careful to not make a sound.

The next minute passed slowly. The sound grew steadily louder, and Arthur had assumed a fighting stance, and Merlin had also got out of the stream, even though he doubted he would be any help in a fight. He didn’t look particularly intimidating with wet clothes.

The undergrowth parted, and two men came tumbling down. Merlin just realised that the small clearing they were in was lower than the surrounding area.

Arthur was just about to run them through, when he realised that they were wearing red uniforms.

Camelot uniforms.

“Your Majesty!” Both of them scrambled up, adjusting their helmets as they did so.

Arthur relaxed and sheathed his sword again. Merlin noticed that both of the soldiers were glancing at him.

Silence reigned for a few moments, neither of the parties knowing what to say.

“Would you like us to accompany you back to the city?” One of the soldiers asked, looking unsure.

Arthur gave him a dry look. “Why is that even a question?”

The soldiers glanced at each other, and then suddenly snapped straight, like a switch had been flipped. 

Arthur, taking that as an answer, got up and helped Merlin to his feet. The whole party turned around and started back towards the city.

“As for your earlier question,” Arthur said, leaning towards Merlin. “I won’t kill you, if that is what you are worried about. It would be really difficult for me to find someone else to wash my socks.”


End file.
